[1301b]
[1]
for they alone can with the fullest reason be deemed absolutely
unequal. And there are some men who being superior in birth claim unequal rights
because of this inequality; for persons who have ancestral virtue and wealth
behind them are thought to be noble.These then roughly speaking are the
starting-points and sources of factions, which give rise to party strife
(and revolutions due to this take place in two ways: sometimes they are
in regard to the constitution, and aim at changing from the one established to
another, for instance from democracy to oligarchy, or to democracy from
oligarchy, or from these to constitutional government and aristocracy, or from
those to these; but sometimes the revolution is not in regard to the established
constitution, but its promoters desire the same form of government, for instance
oligarchy or monarchy, but wish it to be in their own control. Again it may be a question of degree; for
instance, when there is an oligarchy the object may be to change to a more
oligarchical government or to a less, or when there is a democracy to a more or
to a less democratic government, and similarly in the case of the remaining
constitutions, the aim may be either to tighten them up or to relax them. Or
again the aim may be to change a certain part of the constitution, for example
to establish or abolish a certain magistracy, as according to some accounts
Lysander
[20]
attempted to abolish the
kingship at Sparta and the king
Pausanias the ephorate1; and also at Epidamnus the constitution was altered in
part, for they set up a council instead of the tribal rulers, and it is still
compulsory for the magistrates alone of the class that has political power to
come to the popular assembly when an appointment to a magistracy is put to the
vote; and the single supreme magistrate was also an oligarchical feature in this
constitution). For party strife is everywhere due to inequality, where
classes that are unequal do not receive a share of power in proportion
(for a lifelong monarchy is an unequal feature when it exists among
equals); for generally the motive for factious strife is the desire for
equality. But equality is of two
kinds, numerical equality and equality according to worth—by
numerically equal I mean that which is the same and equal in number or
dimension, by equal according to worth that which is equal by proportion2; for instance numerically 3 exceeds 2
and 2 exceeds 1 by an equal amount, but by proportion 4 exceeds 2 and 2 exceeds
1 equally, since 2 and 1 are equal parts of 4 and 2, both being halves. But
although men agree that the absolutely just is what is according to worth, they
disagree (as was said before3) in that some think that if they are
equal in something they are wholly equal, and others claim that if they are
unequal in something they deserve an unequal share of all things. Owing to this two principal varieties of
constitution come into existence, democracy and oligarchy; for noble birth and
virtue are found in few men, but the qualifications specified4 in more:
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